“Predestination & Bible Logic”

Let me begin by saying I have heard it all before… arguments for and against, and some that make no sense whatever. It is my personal conclusion that most Christians hate the idea of God deliberately bringing anyone into the world only to send them to hell, because it offends their own idea of what God ‘ought’ to do. I must admit that I used to think the same way, and understand their reluctance to think otherwise.

Of course, some will say my words are just an expression of ‘Calvinism’. They are wrong. I say what I say because I see it in scripture, with very little difficulty. I am not in the least bit interested in what you have to say on the topic, if what you say is not scriptural. Nor am I interested in my own responses, unless what I respond with is from God’s word. Having settled that, what does God say about this subject? He says that He certainly does choose people to hell.

But, But…

‘But,’ some shout indignantly, ‘God is a God of love. He would not choose someone to hell!’ This, however, does not follow Bible logic. Let us see what God says. I suggest that perhaps what God says may be slightly more authoritative than what we, as haggling human beings, say. (Yes, I am making a wry comment).

We will not, in this short paper, look at proof that God predestinates people to salvation and heaven. I have done that in other articles and most reformed people accept that. Here, we will just look at God sending people to Hell, NOT because they did not choose God, but because God predestinated them to hell. Much as we dislike the idea, our emotional response to it is irrelevant. People are very good at finding fault with scripture, over issues they themselves do not wish to be there. But, it makes no difference… we can say “but, but…” about anything we wish; if God says something, we can have no argument against it.

God Chooses People to Hell

God has absolute authority and power to do whatever He wishes. We have no business questioning what He does.

“Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? Or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?” (Isaiah 29:16)

“O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay (is) in the potter’s hand, so (are) ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.” (Jeremiah 18:6)

“Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed (it), Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?… vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.” (Romans 9:20-22)

This is crystal clear! God says no-one has the right to question how He deals with people He creates. God has power over everyone, and makes some to honour and some to dishonour. The word ‘potter’ merely refers to God as the creator. The word ‘honour’, timē, in this text, means something bought with a price; an obvious allusion to Christ’s sacrifice. Therefore, the opposite applies to ‘dishonour’… a person who is made and who is not bought with a price. Logical, based on scriptural statement.

The word ‘dishonour’, atimia, means ignominy or disgrace, something of shame and disgrace. This is a reference to the unseemliness of a dead body. If one is shameful and disgraceful, he is a sinner without salvation. Hence, Bible logic is that he is bound for hell. Furthermore, if this condition was made by the potter, it means the potter predetermined him to hell.

In Ezekiel 24:6 we see a reference to a pot of dishonour, being full of ‘scum’. The scum means ‘rust’ (often worded as deadly contamination; its root, chala’, means ‘diseased)’. The pot is found in a “bloody city”. In verse 11 God expresses wrath against the pot (and the city), burning it with a fierce heat, so that the pot melts with all its “filthiness” and that “the scum of it may be consumed”.

Continuing the logic, we only need one example of God deliberately predestinating a man to hell, for the rule to be established… that God indeed deliberately brings someone into this world without hope of salvation. This happened to Pharaoh, and God bluntly tells us that He did so in order to show the world that He is supreme and Lord of lords! No mention of a man’s ‘right’ to a ‘chance’, because, to God, this is irrelevant. He does what He pleases!

I hear many theological statements on this matter. One is that God certainly chose who would be saved, but He did not choose who would go to hell! He only ‘foreknew’ who would not accept His salvation! In other words, God showers some with blessing, but the vast majority are in a kind of ‘holding cell’, the earth, where they have no genuine purpose but are just waiting to die so that they enter hell (unless they turn to God). This is an absurdity and it attempts to dilute what God says and does. To use men’s faulty thinking - is not watching men live long lives only to enter a place of damnation, knowing they are doomed but not helping them to escape, just as deplorable (in unbeliever’s eyes) as choosing them in eternity to go there?

If unbelievers in God’s choice to hell start thinking along God’s way of thinking, they may one day come to their senses and see just how illogical their objection is.